Tolway, Susan

A black and white photo of Evelyn Balarsky as a young girl. She is dressed in a white dress and socks and black shoes and is sitting on a table. Evelyn Balarsky was the daughter of Josheph and Sarah Balarsky. She died at age 11 of diptheria in Scotland.

An undated, sepia-toned portrait of a young Sarah Balarsky (née Woolf).

Sol Woolf (Steve Wilson), his sister Rosa McColl (née Woolf), and another man (perhaps John McColl, Rosa’s husband) pose arm in arm for a photo outside a house.

A photo of Sol Woolf (a.k.a. Steve Wilson) posing against a rock formation on a beachfront.

A portrait of Queenie Woolf, Sam Woolf’s wife and Gertrude’s sister-in-law. The note written on top of the photo seems to indicate it was sent to either her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Woolf (Balcon). or her niece, Elizabeth Hood (Woolf).

This is a photo of James Hood with his sister, Margaret Moffatt (née Hood), standing in a garden. In the foreground is a flowering bush. James and Margaret are in the middleground. There appears to be a front or back gate in the background.

James Hood (bottom right, seated) poses for a picture with five other members of the Canadian Legion.

A middle-aged Gertrude Hood and her husband, James Hood, both smile at the camera as they walk down a sidewalk.

Another small oval-shaped photo of an adult Gertrude (Woolf) Hood standing next to a garden.

This small print, also fit for a locket, shows Gertrude Woolf (later Hood) as a young adult.

These two locket-sized photos, which are pasted together, show Gertrude Woolf (later Hood) in what appear to be her early teenage years.

Abraham Woolf, Elizabeth (Betsy) Woolf (née Balcon/Balkind), and six of their seven children pose for a portrait dated to 1898.

A photo of Susan Errington (Tolway) as a small child. The date on the back of the photo places her age anywhere from approximately 13 months to 2 years.

A colour photo of an elderly Gertrude Hood offering a leaf to a cat.

A hand-drawn genealogical tree by Susan Tolway that traces six generations of her family relations. The tree begins with four family names (Spilg, Woolf, Cohen and Balcon) and ends with twelve (Spilg, Rosenthal, Balarsky, McColl, Errington, Moffatt, Balkind, Greene, Mair, Irish, Tolway, and McCallum). The three-digit numbers next to each name correspond to an index of the physical collection (STFF_002).

ABOUT THE COLLECTION The Susan Tolway Family Fonds was donated to the Jewish Historical Society of BC by Susan Towley in February 2018 and digitizing began in January 2019. The JMABC Archives welcomes donations of material pertaining to the history of Jews in BC. This can include photographs, organizational documents, letters, meeting minutes, and items of many varied forms. If you have material you are considering donating, please contact the JMABC archivist to arrange a meeting. The fonds is a genealogical archive compiled by Susan Tolway. During the 1970’s and 1980’s Tolway traced her family tree back six generations to four families of origin: the Spilgs, the Woolfs, the Cohens, and the Balcons. The fonds contains photographs, newspaper articles, correspondence, marriage certificates, and death certificates for this family’s descendants. The Susan Tolway Family Fonds present a representative, and valuable, snapshot of the Jewish diaspora in British Columbia and beyond. This digital collection should be of interest to enthusiasts of local history, preservers of cultural heritage, or someone simply looking for a model on which to base their own do-it-yourself digital genealogy. The digitized version of this collection will enhance access to the fonds, particularly for those who cannot come in to the JMABC to view the original documents. ABOUT JMABC The Jewish Museum and Archives of BC is dedicated to the collecting and sharing of community memories of Jewish life in British Columbia. The ever-growing collection includes documents, photos, and oral histories that recount the history of our community. Through innovative exhibits and programming, the JMABC builds bridges with the diverse communities of BC and heightens awareness of the rich 150 year history of Jewish people in BC. Founded in 1971 as the Jewish Historical Society of BC, the JMABC collects and cares for documents, photographs, artifacts and oral histories chronicling all facets of our community’s history. The archives are housed in dedicated facilities and comprise over 315 linear metres of textual records, 300,000 photographs and 800 oral history interviews. To explore the full archives, go to https://archives.jewishmuseum.ca/